


your heart is so quiet i don't even need to speak

by apollothyme



Category: Marvel
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Rhodey is an idiot with a lot of feelings and so is Tony, that's the gist of it really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 12:18:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1778884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apollothyme/pseuds/apollothyme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The gist of it is that Tony is a paradox wrapped in an enigma boxed inside a puzzle, and he’s also obvious and straight-forward, because Tony always found a special kind of delight in being as confusing as possible. Somewhere over the years—decades now, and jee, when did that happen—Rhodey got embarrassingly good at reading him and figuring him out. He knows Tony’s a brat, but he’s also a lot more than that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	your heart is so quiet i don't even need to speak

Tony Stark is a brat.

This is something that most people can agree on, even if most people don’t know Tony at all, which means they don’t know that he’s a brat, yes, but he’s also a whole lot more than that and the basic genius, billionaire, philanthropist crap.

Nevertheless, the fact that Tony is a huge brat is an universal truth, an undeniable reality, a recognizable mark of life. You couldn’t get Tony and not get the brat behavior. It simply couldn’t be done.

Tony Stark was a brat when he was five years old and rigged a system out of kitchenware that would allow him to paint the entire living room, and everyone in it, red when a switch was pressed, and paint everything and everyone red Tony did.

Tony Stark was a brat when he was sixteen years old and crashed his first car, a black Mercedes with custom wheels, seats, sound system and just about everything else, exactly eleven minutes after stepping foot in it. Tony never told Rhodey that he did it on purpose, but neither Tony’s mom nor his dad came to his birthday party, which was as much of a shock as learning sharks swam in water. It wasn’t hard to glue the pieces together after that.

Tony Stark was a brat when he was twenty years old and the cops busted into his house at five a.m. to find people doing coke in the living room, shots off an eleven-thousand dollars table and trying to drive a motorcycle from the roof into the pool. Tony himself was in bed with four other people when all this happened. He called Rhodey to bail him out of jail and Rhodey longed to ignore him. He wanted to tell Tony to fuck off so badly his grip on the phone turned white and he had to suck in air as if he were on top of Mt. Everest and not in his parent’s home, sitting on the bed in nothing but a pair of Sesame Street boxers. He almost said the words, too, had to bite back a ‘fuck’ at the last second when he realized this was, somehow, his best friend, and as much as Rhodey wanted him to learn a lesson, he also couldn’t just leave him in jail.

Tony Stark was a brat when he was twenty-two years old and the cops busted his house again, mid party, and found a situation almost scaringly similar to the one they’d found two years earlier. This time Obadiah went in Rhodey’s place, and Rhodey couldn’t for the life of him figure out if that was better or worse.

There are other moments when Tony was a brat. Hell, sometimes it feels like the other way around, as if you have to search for moments when Tony _wasn’t_ a brat, which actually isn’t true, at all. Tony is a lot more than just a brat, even if it’s easy to forget that sometimes.

And yet, despite everything, and despite how ridiculously corny it might sound—and it does sound ridiculously corny, making it one of the many things Rhodey will ever admit out loud except when drunk with his air force buddies—Rhodey wouldn’t have him any other way.

Because Tony’s Tony, and he’s a brat, and that’s not always a bad thing.

Tony Stark was a brat when he was twenty-one years old and paid off all of Rhodey’s student loans without telling him. When an infuriated Rhodey called him later, he said it was a birthday gift, simple as that, ignoring the fact that Rhodey’s birthday had been four months ago and Tony had already given him a Rolex. He acted as if the whole thing was no big deal, which Rhodey knew was Tony’s way of deflecting and hiding from his emotions. The whole thing was plain ridiculous, and Rhodey wanted to speak about it because he couldn’t _not_ speak about it, but of course Tony brushed him off and refused to act like this was a big deal. Eventually Rhodey let it go, sort of. He showed up once every three month in the middle of a Stark Industries meeting and said Tony was urgently needed somewhere else. Then he’d take them both out for hot dogs and they’d do nothing for the whole afternoon. It wasn’t the perfect way to say thanks, but Rhodey knew Tony appreciated it.

Tony was a brat when he was thirty-two years old and bought the hospital Pepper’s mom was staying in for chemotherapy, so he could make sure the lovely Pepper senior got the best treatment. Nevermind that the hospital was already known as one of the best in the area and Stark Industries Health Insurance expanded over close family.

The gist of it is that Tony is a paradox wrapped in an enigma boxed inside a puzzle, and he’s also obvious and straight-forward, because Tony always found a special kind of delight in being as confusing as possible. Somewhere over the years—decades now, and jee, when did that happen—Rhodey got embarrassingly good at reading him and figuring him out. He knows Tony’s a brat, but he’s also a lot more than that.

* * *

Tony Stark is a poor judge of character.

He’s abysmal, honestly. You’d think, no, you’d expect someone who grew up in a world where being pretentious and owning five houses, three boats and twelve horses was the norm to be better at reading other people, but Tony must have been too distracted designing something deadly and stupid in his head to learn that lesson.

He can tell when people are after him only for his money or fame. Rhodey knows he can because the Tony that interacts with these people is not the same Tony that interacts with him or Pepper. This Tony is colder, calculating, wary. And yet, despite all the harsh edges he grows whenever someone touches his arm with a dollar glint in their eyes, Tony still forgets sometimes, goes into a relationship doomed from the start only to come out worse from it.

Rhodey doesn’t know what to make from it, other than deducing that for all Tony Stark is a genius, he’s also an idiot.

(Except, you know, he’s not, because you can’t blame someone for hoping for something real, can you? Rhodey can, but he’s Tony’s best friend. He’s picked Tony up more times than he can count. He has a lot of privileges when it comes to Tony Stark. Privileges and limits. Funny how that works.)

When he and Tony met, Tony thought he was a complete jackass and covered Rhodey’s dorm room floor with plastic cups full of something, Rhodey later found, would permanently stain the carpet if spilled. To be fair on Tony, he and Rhodey had met when Rhodey busted Tony’s poor attempt at a party in the science building. That didn’t mean it gave him the right to prank Rhodey, of course, but Rhodey got retaliation for that a week later when he put bright blue hair dye on Tony’s shampoo and body wash.

In a way, it was the start of a beautiful friendship, if you could call a prank war that spanned seven months, involved over fifty other people and almost got them both expelled from MIT a beautiful friendship, which they both did, obviously.

Tony almost fired Pepper two hours after hiring her, when she apparently misfiled something extremely important. It should be noted that Tony’s filing system before hiring Pepper was literally non-existent, and he’d been running on three hours of sleep for over two days. Basically, it should be noted, that Tony was being more of an asshole than usual, and that his first impression of Pepper was that she was a ‘boring, useless girl’ proving, once again, that Tony Stark is a huge idiot.

Rhodey isn’t even going to think about Obadiah and how Tony used to feel about him. How he betrayed Tony. How he tried to kill him, multiple times. How he made Tony go through hell. Rhodey is not even going to think about Obadiah Stane because every time he does he sees red, sees blood and fire and pure hate, and he can’t deal with that again.

Sometimes—okay, a lot of the time—Rhodey feels like he has to protect Tony, has to step in front of him and shield him from the world, from himself. Tony’s a poor judge of character and also kind of an idiot, but that doesn’t mean he deserves to go through all the shit he goes through, even when he’s the cause of some of it.

(And Rhodey would have to admit, that when it comes to Tony at least, he doesn’t have such a clear head either.)

* * *

Tony Stark eats like a fucking pig.

He has the whole crazy, nerd scientist look going for him when he’s down at the workshop, but no colossal amount of work or distraction will stop him from eating enough sugar to kill a small mammal.

Seriously, he will eat just about anything as long as a) it contains enough sugar to keep him awake during a marathon of documentaries on Justin Hammer or b) it contains enough fat to make someone with working taste buds gag.

Also, he chews with his mouth open. When he’s in a formal dinner he’s the spitting image proper, educated and mannered, but get him alone with a cheeseburger and it’s all giant bites and not a second for pause as he rants about the amazing specs of whatever he’s working on. Rhodey can never help cringing and throwing a napkin at him during those meals.

He loves Tony, but he could really do without the sight of his molars doing their job.

* * *

Tony Stark is both the epitome of humble and arrogant.

If it’s possible to live in the lines between the things unsaid, while simultaneously living on the front page of every magazine and newspaper, then that’s what Tony does.

There are things that he brags about incessantly, going on and on about the newest modification to the Iron Man suit while Rhodey listens with interest—it’s the Iron Man, Tony could spend ten hours talking about the filtration systems and Rhodey would still listen with interest—and raving to the press the next day about his newest accomplishment.

But then, just as he does this, he’ll buy Pepper a new necklace that he knows she’d be eyeing and he won’t say a thing about it, will just leave it on her desk. Or he’ll make a large, anonymous donation to a charity he saw the other day while travelling to a meeting. Or he’ll show up at Rhodey’s house in the middle of the night and announce they’re “drinking themselves dead” after Rhodey’s last girlfriend broke up with him (“You’re too busy. You either spend all your time working or with Stark. I’m not going to be your third choice.”)

And he won’t say anything, is the thing, because Tony Stark does everything and anything, a man of pure determination and will, but he won’t always admit to it. He’s the kind of guy who’ll build you a spaceship to the moon, if you’d ask, and depending on his mood, will either refuse to hear a word of thanks about it or will build a hangar in the most public place possible, preferably next to the house of someone like Justin Hammer, just so everyone can see his awesome spaceship.

It’s all about contradictions. Tony is a study in contradictions. Some of them are on purpose to confuse people, to keep them away. But some others, Rhodey’s pretty sure not even Tony himself is aware of.

* * *

Tony Stark is brave.

Rhodey’s niece is a huge Harry Potter fan. She owns all the books, guidebooks, coloring books, DVDs, pieces of clothing, fake wands made of plastic, real wands made of wood and heavens knows what else. You name it, the kid probably owns it.

As the youngest sibling and the only girl in a batch of five kids, she is, without a single doubt, the true owner of Rhodey’s heart. That and the fact that she’s the only one in their entire family who wasn’t impressed by Tony and his cheap gimmicks when Rhodey brought Tony to a New Year’s party two years ago. Rhodey respects the ‘not easily impressed by Tony Stark’ quality a lot in people.

So she’s his favorite, which is the only reason Rhodey can think of for why he agreed to pull an all nighter to watch all the Harry Potter movies with her. It’s definitely not because he enjoys them too—Rhodey’s a sci fi guy through and through—and because his sister bakes them brownies whenever Rhodey accepts one his little niece’s requests. Definitely.

After the third movie, in between a break for refueling—chocolate milk for Andrea, coffee for Rhodey—they start talking about Hogwarts sorting, which leads to them sorting people they know, mostly Andrea’s school friends and their family, but also Rhodey’s friends.

Pepper’s a Hufflepuff, the very face of hard-working, patience and fair. Rhodey’s air force buddies are mostly Gryffindors and Slytherins, with one or two exceptions. Rhodey himself identifies most with Gryffindor, but Andrea tells him he’s a Hufflepuff. They agree to disagree after a couple of minutes of heated debate. Tony is… Tony is almost impossible to sort.

Tony has a little bit of everything, which is not that weird considering he’s a human being with multiple qualities and faults. Ambition doesn’t negate hard-work, just as intelligence doesn’t negate courage, and Tony has all of those characteristics.

If Rhodey had tried to ‘sort’ Tony when he first met him, he would have put him in Slytherin. Young Tony Stark, fresh arrived at MIT, acted as if he had to prove the world and everyone in it that he was smarter, funnier and generally better than everyone. He was all ambition and determination, Slytherin’s main qualities.

But then Rhodey actually got to know Tony through their prank war, and he learned that Tony was even more intelligent than the rumours made him to be, and there were a lot of crazy rumours going around about Tony’s intelligence. So, Ravenclaw.

 _Except_ , Tony wasn’t defined by his intelligence, not as much as he was defined by some of his other qualities at least. Hufflepuff was where he was least likely to fit.. He had the dedication and the hard-work part sorted down, but patience and tolerance? Not exactly Tony’s most signifying traits.

Which leaves Gryffindor, whose main traits are bravery, nerve, chivalry, courage and daring. Now, last time Rhodey checked, four of those were near synonyms, and they all boiled down to the first one. Bravery.

Many things can be said about Tony, but you can’t say he isn’t brave, not if you know him.

Tony Stark was brave when he faced the press with his chin held as high as he could after his parents death. He was brave when he came back from Afghanistan and stopped producing weapons despite what it meant for Stark Industries. He is brave every day, whenever he puts on the Iron Man suit. He is brave when he risks his life for the safety of others, and also kind of an idiot, but that’s already been covered. And Tony was brave when one day, he looked Rhodey in the eye and said, “Okay, so this might be a terrible idea. Or a really awesome one. But most likely terrible. Let’s find out!”

He then leaned across the couch and kissed Rhodey as ‘Hangover’ played in the flat screen in front of them. The bowl of popcorn in Tony’s lap fell on the floor, the lights automatically dimmed—JARVIS’ handiwork, no doubt—and the entire world seemed to go on mute as time stretched and snapped back in place around them.

After two incredibly awkward seconds of their mouths being pressed together and neither of them moving or even daring to breathe, Rhodey kissed him back.

He’d always known he loved Tony, you kind of have to if you want to stick around. He knew Tony loved him back, because Tony might never talk about his feelings, but he acted on them all the time, and that’s what mattered in the end. Rhodey had never really thought Tony loved him back like _that_ , however, but it was like that Shrek quote about onions. Tony was an onion, full of layers and layers that are simple when apart and a confusing, complex thing when put together.

And maybe that was a really terrible metaphor, and what Rhodey truly meant was that for all that he knew Tony better than anyone else, the man never stopped surprising him. Whatever. He’s not like he was going to admit it anyway. Tony would never let it go if he did.

(The brat.)


End file.
